St. Thomas...Oh, How Plagued You Are By Modern "Sinful" Society.

Source: Star Tribune

You know, this story isn't surprising. This comes after an article in our indie paper, City Pages, that St. Thomas is a campus of many contradictions. To support their university status which brings in many applicants, they must give an appearance of open-mindedness and liberalism. However, at the heart of it all--St. Thomas' heavily Christian conservative board--they're no more open-minded than Jerry Falwell and his ilk.

So when Ben Kessler, who is on his way to becoming a priest, chastises his fellow graduates for different things, such as using birth control...well, that's not out of the norm. What comes as a surprise is that he apologizes for offending people.

A University of St. Thomas honors graduate who scolded his fellow seniors at Saturday's commencement ceremony for being "selfish" apologized Monday for offending people during his politically charged speech.

Ben Kessler, an academic All-America football player who plans to become a priest, chastised students for using birth control, criticized them for a recent food fight and upheld the St. Paul university's controversial policy against allowing unmarried faculty and staff members in romantic relationships to room together on school trips that involve students.

"Then he got into other failures of society, and one of my classmates next to me stood up and left," said Daphne Ho, a graduating senior whose family traveled from Hong Kong for the celebration.

In a prepared statement released Monday by St. Thomas, Kessler said that he had tried in his speech to look back at some issues faced by the university and society and then look ahead.

"Instead of providing hope for all, I offended some by my words," Kessler said. "I sincerely apologize to each person I offended."

I can see why he felt the need to apologize. After all, his speech wasn't a success.

The speech prompted booing and walkouts.

"He started out pretty well and then, out of nowhere, comes these bombshells about things he'd seen that irritated him," said Chris Kearney, a graduating senior from Hibbing, Minn.

"The heart of the speech was about making selfish decisions, so when I went up to get my diploma afterwards, I told him he made some good points about being selfish -- and he's the man that was selfish enough to ruin hundreds of people's graduations," Kearney said.

Several students were seen crying, while others hollered to get Kessler off the stage. Brandon Mileski, a 2002 St. Thomas graduate, was in the crowd to watch his girlfriend receive her diploma.

"Dozens of students literally started walking out when he brought up birth control issues and, at one point, I thought a riot would break out," Mileski said. "I give him credit because he kept on going when everyone started booing and heckling.

"At one point he was talking about the meaning of true happiness and someone stood up and screamed: 'I'll be happy when your speech in done!'"

Ouch.

Anyway, here's the video from YouTube which someone kindly put up for everyone's viewing pleasure.



Tags: [St. Thomas], [Ben Kessler], [St. Thomas honor student apologizes for grad speech], [chastised students for using birth control], [criticized them for a recent food fight], [upheld the St. Paul university's controversial policy against allowing unmarried faculty and staff members in romantic relationships to room together on school trips that involve students], [Rev. Dennis Dease]